Special probe denied in '95 deaths

Prosecutor use of drugs claimed

January 10, 2004|By Art Barnum, Tribune staff reporter.

A DuPage County judge declined Friday to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that the case in the 1995 murder of Debra Evans may have been compromised because of illegal drug use by one or more county officials.

Richard Kling, defense attorney for Fedell Caffey, one of three people convicted for the brutal murder of Evans and two of her children, asked Judge Peter Dockery to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate alleged statements by two witnesses about "an assistant state's attorney," "others in the state's attorney's office" and "members of certain law enforcement agencies in DuPage" using illegal drugs.

"[Witnesses Vicki Iacullo and Dwight Pruitt] were appreciably involved in the case and they were handled with kid gloves," said Kling, who said the Caffey jury deserved all the facts.

DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett said the allegations lack "a scintilla of evidence. These are jailhouse rumors--bombshell accusations--based on an unnamed source. I would never tolerate this conduct."

The defense document originally filed in October had been impounded at Birkett's request until Friday, when Dockery made it public.

Caffey, Lavern Ward and Jacqueline Williams were convicted of the Nov. 16, 1995, murder of Evans and her daughter, Samantha, at their Addison apartment. Her son, Joshua, was found dead the next day in a Maywood alley. The baby Evans was carrying was cut from her body and survived.

Kling's document states that, at the time of the murders, Iacullo told a friend that she "wasn't going to get in any trouble" for the murders because of her special relationships based on narcotics dealing.

Iacullo, a close friend of Williams' who never testified at any of the murder trials, was a suspect in the murder case, but was only charged with obstruction of justice for participating in hiding the murder weapon.

Pruitt, who testified that Joshua stayed at his Villa Park-area apartment the night before he was killed, also made allegations about having some drug dealings with a prosecutor, according to Kling's document.

"A special prosecutor shouldn't be hired to do the work of the defense attorney, and it is not State's Atty. Birkett's job to investigate these claims," Dockery said.

Terry Ekl, a private attorney hired by the prosecutor, said he had conducted his own investigation, which includes statements by Iacullo and Pruitt "and they had totally denied what they claimed to have said."

Kling also filed a request to force Iacullo and Pruitt, along with Pruitt's former girlfriend, Patrice Scott, to give depositions to defense attorneys.